A sizzling drama of desire, avarice and deception set in the American Deep South, Tennessee Williams's u003ciu003eCat on a Hot Tin Roofu003c/iu003e is published in Penguin Modern Classics.u003cbru003e 'Big Daddy' Pollitt, the richest cotton planter in the Mississippi Delta, is about to celebrate his sixty-fifth birthday. His two sons have returned home for the occasion- Gooper, his wife and children, Brick, an ageing football hero who has turned to drink, and his feisty wife Maggie. As the hot summer evening unfolds, the veneer of happy family life and Southern gentility gradually slips away as unpleasant truths emerge and greed, lies, jealousy and suppressed sexuality threaten to reach boiling point. Made into a film starring Elizabeth Taylor and Paul Newman, u003ciu003eCat on a Hot Tin Roofu003c/iu003e is a masterly portrayal of family tensions and individuals trapped in prisons of their own making.u003cbru003e Tennessee Williams (1911-1983) was born in Columbus, Mississippi. When his father, a travelling salesman, moved with his family to St Louis some years later, both he and his sister found it impossible to settle down to city life. He entered college during the Depression and left after a couple of years to take a clerical job in a shoe company. He stayed there for two years, spending the evenings writing. He received a Rockefeller Fellowship in 1940 for his play u003ciu003eBattle of Angelsu003c/iu003e, and he won the Pulitzer Prize in 1948 and 1955. Among his many other plays Penguin have published u003ciu003eThe Glass Menagerieu003c/iu003e (1944), u003ciu003eThe Rose Tattoou003c/iu003e (1951), u003ciu003eCat on a Hot Tin Roofu003c/iu003e (1955), u003ciu003eSweet Bird of Youthu003c/iu003e (1959), u003ciu003eThe Night of the Iguanau003c/iu003e (1961), and u003ciu003eSmall Craft Warningsu003c/iu003e (1972).u003cbru003e If you enjoyed u003ciu003eCat on a Hot Tin Roofu003c/iu003e, you might like Williams's u003ciu003eThe Glass Menagerieu003c/iu003e, also published in Penguin Modern Classics.u003cbru003e 'Tennessee Williams will live as long as drama itself ... he is, quite simply, indispensable'u003cbru003e Peter Shaffer, author of u003ciu003eEquusu003c/iu003eu003cbru003e
